1. Field of the Invention
The present invention involves a transmission delay system, a method of delaying a transmission, and an improvement to a transmission delay system and, more particularly, to a transmission delay device and method and an improvement thereto that excises, records, logs, and time- and date-stamps undesired content from an input media stream and automatically provides message alerts that an excision event has occurred to at least one message alert recipient.
2. Background of the Invention
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulates and prohibits the airing, broadcast or re-broadcast on terrestrial radio and commercial television of or inappropriate language, e.g., “the seven dirty words” made famous by comedian George Carlin, that is deemed profane. Violators are typically fined heavily for each transgression. For example, the FCC imposed a stiff $550,000 fine on the Columbia Broadcasting Company (CBS) for the Janet Jackson Super Bowl “costume malfunction” and has imposed fines on a former terrestrial radio “shock jock” that exceed two-and-a-half million dollars.
To prevent inappropriate or undesired content transmissions and to avoid heavy fines, broadcasters and station managers employ an audio and/or video device that delays the amount of time it takes for an incoming, media stream signal to reach and be broadcast by the system's transmitter. Typically, after identifying inappropriate language, a human operator or an automatic censor will intervene and activate a trigger mechanism that excises the offensive language, preventing profane or otherwise undesired content from being broadcast. This often results in a brief period of “dead-air” time (silence) or a “bleep” or other sound may replace the offensive language.
Heretofore, the removed undesired language is merely excised and all-but-forgotten, which is to say that the undesired portion of the transmission is cut out or overwritten by “dead-air” or by a “bleep” sound. However, it would be desirable to improve current broadcast delay systems to chronicle what actually took place “off air”, which is to say that, instead of excising the content altogether, the content as well as a user- or operator-selectable amount of audio and/or video content, such as the audio and/or video content occurring immediately before and immediately after the delay increment, is recorded and saved. Advantageously, the latter attribute facilitates comparison between the content in broadcast output media stream data and the content in input media stream data files.
It would be further desirable to identify and to log each piece of excised media by time- and date-stamping the media at the time of incidence and, further, to notify, e.g., via electronic mail (email) message, text message, instant messages, telephone message, and the like, that a profanity or content excision has taken place. Such notifications can include text, graphics, attachments of media files, such as audio or video files, metalinks to the media files, URL links to the media files, and so forth. Use of these notifications and media can be used by broadcast and media company personnel to demonstrate compliance with corporate, government, and community standards of obscenity, profanity, and decorum. The data further eliminate the “he-said/she-said” finger pointing that may otherwise occur after a profanity excise incident.